A quick late night post to let you know that the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has voted to uphold the appointment of Scott Rennie as Minister of Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen. I'm really happy for Scott and wish him and David all the best with their move.
I'm also thrilled that Liberal Youth Scotland organised an event in solidarity with Scott at the General Assembly. No doubt Stephen will blog about it soon as I know that he was there. UPDATE: and he did
The BBC news website devoted I think a disproportionate amount of coverage to a few people protesting against Scott without mentioning the 4 times larger group of people who were there to support him.
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Showing posts with label Scott Rennie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scott Rennie. Show all posts
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Lib Dem Voice lets me write for them...
For those of you who don't regularly read Lib Dem Voice (and why not, cos it's really good), you might like to have a look at an article they let me write for them about the continuing debate in the Church of Scotland over the appointment of Scott Rennie as Minister of Queen's Cross, Aberdeen.
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Thursday, May 14, 2009
Homophobic Bigots to descend on Scotland
This Sunday sees the International Day Against Homophobia and events are planned across the UK to raise awareness of those who are fighting against persecution of the LGBT community across the world and of the problems this can cause.
You wonder what exactly has been achieved in Iraq when you read reports of the brutal torture and murder of gay men.
Just in case you were thinking that we're all cool about gay people these days and nobody is horrible to them in the UK, have a look at this speech Nick Clegg gave to Stonewall last year in which he highlighted the shocking information that:
"Two thirds of young gay people have experienced homophobic bullying at school. And almost one third say that an adult in the school environment is responsible for homophobic incidents."
I am incredibly proud to be in a party where the leader is willing to publicly talk about these issues and urge action to stop such bullying.
My daughter is only in Primary 5 and already she has reported to me that some people at her school don't think being gay is very good and are using homophobic insults - at the age of 9. She instinctively finds that pretty repulsive and has challenged the people who use them.
She's been to as many civil partnerships in her life as she has been to weddings and takes the very pragmatic view that if people love each other they should be left in peace to be together. She's had the experience of having a diverse and liberal community of friends around her all her life and just accepts people as they are. If kids in schools are coming out with homophobic nonsense at 9, then that tells me that something needs to be done when they're much younger to nip those ideas in the bud.
The reason I'm writing about this today is because I have been absolutely sickened by this flier which has been put out by an American pastor who runs a website full of hatred and bigotry called, and I'm not kidding, godhatesfags.com. It makes me wince just typing those words. His followers are the sort of people who demonstrate at the funerals of people who have died of AIDS in the US. How can people put grieving relatives through even more trauma?
You'll see from the flier that this man, who has been banned from the UK, is despatching some of his hate fuelled mates to picket the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland when it discusses Queen's Cross Church's decision to appoint Scott Rennie as Minister because he is openly gay on 23 May. Not only do these people intend to protest in Edinburgh, but they also intend to picket Scott's church in Aberdeen the day after.
I am literally shaken that these thoroughly evil (and, yes, I do mean that) bigots are travelling thousands of miles to persecute my friend, so it's personal for me, but I would hope that good people everywhere would want to make a stand against such a show of bile and pure nastiness. If the Westboro material had the language relating to sexual orientation replaced with words relating to gender or race, they would be done for inciting hatred.
I think one way to deal with those people if they are allowed to stage their protest is to stand peacefully, quietly and with dignity against them to show them that Scotland is a tolerant, diverse and civilised nation.
LibDig This!
You wonder what exactly has been achieved in Iraq when you read reports of the brutal torture and murder of gay men.
Just in case you were thinking that we're all cool about gay people these days and nobody is horrible to them in the UK, have a look at this speech Nick Clegg gave to Stonewall last year in which he highlighted the shocking information that:
"Two thirds of young gay people have experienced homophobic bullying at school. And almost one third say that an adult in the school environment is responsible for homophobic incidents."
I am incredibly proud to be in a party where the leader is willing to publicly talk about these issues and urge action to stop such bullying.
My daughter is only in Primary 5 and already she has reported to me that some people at her school don't think being gay is very good and are using homophobic insults - at the age of 9. She instinctively finds that pretty repulsive and has challenged the people who use them.
She's been to as many civil partnerships in her life as she has been to weddings and takes the very pragmatic view that if people love each other they should be left in peace to be together. She's had the experience of having a diverse and liberal community of friends around her all her life and just accepts people as they are. If kids in schools are coming out with homophobic nonsense at 9, then that tells me that something needs to be done when they're much younger to nip those ideas in the bud.
The reason I'm writing about this today is because I have been absolutely sickened by this flier which has been put out by an American pastor who runs a website full of hatred and bigotry called, and I'm not kidding, godhatesfags.com. It makes me wince just typing those words. His followers are the sort of people who demonstrate at the funerals of people who have died of AIDS in the US. How can people put grieving relatives through even more trauma?
You'll see from the flier that this man, who has been banned from the UK, is despatching some of his hate fuelled mates to picket the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland when it discusses Queen's Cross Church's decision to appoint Scott Rennie as Minister because he is openly gay on 23 May. Not only do these people intend to protest in Edinburgh, but they also intend to picket Scott's church in Aberdeen the day after.
I am literally shaken that these thoroughly evil (and, yes, I do mean that) bigots are travelling thousands of miles to persecute my friend, so it's personal for me, but I would hope that good people everywhere would want to make a stand against such a show of bile and pure nastiness. If the Westboro material had the language relating to sexual orientation replaced with words relating to gender or race, they would be done for inciting hatred.
I think one way to deal with those people if they are allowed to stage their protest is to stand peacefully, quietly and with dignity against them to show them that Scotland is a tolerant, diverse and civilised nation.
LibDig This!
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Why I no longer go to Church.
I have been so saddened by the fact that a small minority within the Church of Scotland has mounted a campaign against Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen's decision to appoint its new minister, on the grounds that they can't accept that he is living with another man.
I know Scott Rennie, the minister in question. He is one of the kindest and most compassionate people I have ever met and he is so well suited to the job he's doing. I wonder how many of the people who have signed the online petition against him have actually taken the time to meet him and get to know him.
When I went to University, 24 years ago, I went as a committed Christian. It didn't take long, away from my somewhat sheltered background, for my beliefs to unravel and the major catalyst to that was the intolerance within the Christian Union to my gay friends. It was clear that they weren't welcome just on the basis of their sexuality. That seemed fundamentally unfair to me and I ultimately decided that if you had to be like that to be in the Church, then I wasn't going to bother, thank you very much.
From what I remember of the accounts in the Bible, Jesus just called people to him. He didn't go into their backgrounds or sexuality or private life. He put himself out there to be followed by whoever wanted to.
There are people within the Liberal Democrats with whom I have some basic differences on issues. I know that I am very much in the minority on some of them too. There's room within our core values and philosophy for all points of view and I don't really see why the Church of Scotland should be any different.
The good thing is that it is only a very small minority of people who have become involved in the campaign against Scott. I heard some very wise and accepting views expressed by members of the clergy and the church alike on a Radio Scotland phone in this morning and I am sure that they will prevail at the General Assembly vote later this month.
I think that one of the interesting things that Scott was quoted as saying in the newspaper article was that gay Christians could feel isolated from both communities -sometimes the Church couldn't handle people being gay, but also some elements of the gay community couldn't handle Christianity. If they've had a bad experience, the latter is hardly surprising. It's people like Scott who can help bring both together. It's as unfair to expect someone to ignore their spiritual beliefs and needs as it is to expect them to deny and suppress their sexuality.
I remember all the angst and pain of the ordination of women debate within the Church of England. It was very difficult for the brave women who sought ordination and who had to endure some pretty unacceptable discrimination. Nearly 20 years on, women priests are accepted and respected within their communities, churches and dioceses.
Let's hope that it doesn't take that long for gay and lesbian clergy in all churches to feel that they can be open about their sexuality if they want to without fear of recrimination.
Update: Have a look at Lallands Peat Warrior's views on this and on religion in general.
Update 2: Mr MacNumpty has now put up a thoughtful post asking why Scott Rennie bothers and being glad that he does.
Update 3: This issue really is inspiring some good quality stuff. Today's offerings come first from the ever wise Cicero.
Then a very moving account of his own experience coming to terms with his sexuality within a conservative religious environment from my friend Stephen. It made me cry.
There is also now a Facebook cause in support of Scott. I didn't start it, and I don't know the person who did, but it's growing fast.
Update 4: A blog post from one of Scott's fellow Church of Scotland's Ministers expressing hope that the Assembly will support Scott.
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I know Scott Rennie, the minister in question. He is one of the kindest and most compassionate people I have ever met and he is so well suited to the job he's doing. I wonder how many of the people who have signed the online petition against him have actually taken the time to meet him and get to know him.
When I went to University, 24 years ago, I went as a committed Christian. It didn't take long, away from my somewhat sheltered background, for my beliefs to unravel and the major catalyst to that was the intolerance within the Christian Union to my gay friends. It was clear that they weren't welcome just on the basis of their sexuality. That seemed fundamentally unfair to me and I ultimately decided that if you had to be like that to be in the Church, then I wasn't going to bother, thank you very much.
From what I remember of the accounts in the Bible, Jesus just called people to him. He didn't go into their backgrounds or sexuality or private life. He put himself out there to be followed by whoever wanted to.
There are people within the Liberal Democrats with whom I have some basic differences on issues. I know that I am very much in the minority on some of them too. There's room within our core values and philosophy for all points of view and I don't really see why the Church of Scotland should be any different.
The good thing is that it is only a very small minority of people who have become involved in the campaign against Scott. I heard some very wise and accepting views expressed by members of the clergy and the church alike on a Radio Scotland phone in this morning and I am sure that they will prevail at the General Assembly vote later this month.
I think that one of the interesting things that Scott was quoted as saying in the newspaper article was that gay Christians could feel isolated from both communities -sometimes the Church couldn't handle people being gay, but also some elements of the gay community couldn't handle Christianity. If they've had a bad experience, the latter is hardly surprising. It's people like Scott who can help bring both together. It's as unfair to expect someone to ignore their spiritual beliefs and needs as it is to expect them to deny and suppress their sexuality.
I remember all the angst and pain of the ordination of women debate within the Church of England. It was very difficult for the brave women who sought ordination and who had to endure some pretty unacceptable discrimination. Nearly 20 years on, women priests are accepted and respected within their communities, churches and dioceses.
Let's hope that it doesn't take that long for gay and lesbian clergy in all churches to feel that they can be open about their sexuality if they want to without fear of recrimination.
Update: Have a look at Lallands Peat Warrior's views on this and on religion in general.
Update 2: Mr MacNumpty has now put up a thoughtful post asking why Scott Rennie bothers and being glad that he does.
Update 3: This issue really is inspiring some good quality stuff. Today's offerings come first from the ever wise Cicero.
Then a very moving account of his own experience coming to terms with his sexuality within a conservative religious environment from my friend Stephen. It made me cry.
There is also now a Facebook cause in support of Scott. I didn't start it, and I don't know the person who did, but it's growing fast.
Update 4: A blog post from one of Scott's fellow Church of Scotland's Ministers expressing hope that the Assembly will support Scott.
LibDig This!
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